Women of Science
by Verdot
Summary: Shera was only a intern when she almost met Shinra's women of science. Features Lucrecia and Scarlet.


Shera wondered if this Dr. Crescent had any idea what Scarlet really was saying. From where she was sitting that wasn't really a _nice_ thing to say.

"Grimoire spoke so highly of you, exactly what kind of work does he have you doing these days?"

As an intern, she was very unlike the two of them and in general didn't speak to them. In general they didn't speak to each other either, but in the upper level break room today they were taking up an entire table between the two of them, legs crossed and coffee cups steaming next to their prospective lunches. Dr. Crescent's looked home-baked, something her mother would have packed for her, complete with a flowered napkin while Scarlet's lunch consisted of something unidentifiable from the vending machine.

"Oh, ah, nothing much, just giving me the chance to prove some of things from my graduate thesis."

Shera had only come to grab a few things that they were low on in the Engineering section of the building. Maybe it had partly been an excuse; sometimes the posturing there got to be a little much. Working at an actual company was so different from how it was at school.

The eavesdropping she was doing was merely accidental.

"No need to get technical."

They would notice she was listening in, and the other techs were bound to get antsy about their sugar packets soon. Babies.

_ooo_

Interns got stuck with all the grunt work in Engineering, so Shera was relieved that they gave her another task that involved her going to the upper levels. She was also starting to see that if she dawdled a little bit, they wouldn't miss her--not that anyone listened to her much anyway. Her invisibility was something she'd always had a love/hate relationship with. Today she loved it, because she had the chance to run into them again.

That curious not-civility remained. And here Shera had started to think that it was due to the social lunch ritual.

"Scarlet, you know I'm not at liberty to disclose that. I'm sure if you just asked the board for permission then we could talk."

She had always heard such disparaging remarks about the way that Scarlet dressed, but now that she got a good and somewhat up close look at her when she wasn't sitting at a table, she didn't see anything wrong with it. If she looked like Scarlet--tall, blonde, and figured like a movie star--she'd never wear the fatigues and cargo pants that she wore. Of course, if Scarlet wore Shera's clothes they would still look somewhat glamorous on her.

"Now I know for a fact you don't have the talent for the mechanical in the same way you do for the biological. And you're very good at that, everyone talks about what a little wunderkind you were when you were plucked out of school."

There was a genuine compliment in there, buried, and it looked like Dr. Crescent needed it. She wasn't wearing the subtly impractical heeled shoes that Shera assumed was what all of the true Science Department women wore. No, today she had on ballet flats and there were definitely flyaways in her bangs and ponytail. Dark circles were starting to peek out from behind the coverup under her eyes.

"By mechanical you mean _weapons_ and this is _research._" Even Shera thought that sounded a little naive, but again, she'd gone to school for engineering, which emphasized practicality above any delusions of grandeur. Well, maybe alongside those delusions.

"Right, and that's why your research is being funded by a _manufacturing_ company. Face it; they're not going to keep funding your flights of fancy and the money will go into more direct applications."

"Like weapons?"

"Educated girl like yourself knows about manifest destiny. And we are expanding."

Shera held her breathe when one of Dr. Crescent's--delicate, steely--hands balled into a fist. Oh she wanted to learn that, how someone could go from entirely vulnerable looking to casting that off in a short gesture. How the two most formidable women in the company could be so terrifying and never raise a hand to strike. It was something she had missed in all the classes, sheltered in invisibility. Wasn't there a fine line between fear and awe? Hadn't that been what those religious sorts bellowed about on her campus?

"Weapons are a short term solution to a long term problem. People don't understand the world they live in, but I--my _research_--will."

"And you'll unite everyone with love and science?"

"Yes," Dr. Crescent hissed, with a strange sort of ferocity. To think that all of the boys in Engineering talked about her like she was some delicate flower, some strange bloom cursed with intelligence. When all along it was probably the other way around.

But Scarlet's laugh, which was as shrill as she'd heard, broke the silence, and Shera couldn't help but jump a little. For a few beats she held her breath, but neither woman seemed to have noticed her presence.

"It's a shame that you and Grimoire are heading out to hunt for mako crystals, I could use a good laugh more often."

Stilettos were named after weapons, and hearing Scarlet walk down the hallways towards Shera's little alcove proved the aptness of their naming. But the women merely gave her a glance and continued on. Invisibility or simply not existing as a threat to Scarlet earned only a glance of attention.

She slipped back to the build lab silently, wondering if she still owned any lipstick.

_ooo_

"You look like a girl."

"That's because I am one."

It had been hiding in the very back of her closet, but the yellow dress still fit, and it wasn't a terribly impractical length. Shera didn't own any fancy shoes anymore, and since she sometimes was allowed to weld they weren't safe at all in the build lab, so she'd kept her steel-toed boots.

"Yeah, but you LOOK like one."

Shera rolled her eyes and adjusted her glasses. _Boys._ But it didn't really matter what they thought. She shrugged on the coat that would protect her from sparks and went to get her gloves and faceplate. Today she was determined not to go on a sugar packet run.

She might not have looked like the women of science, but then, engineering had always been more of a bastard cousin anyway.


End file.
